Furious locals on a Spanish beach chased and pinned down around a dozen migrants as they disembarked from a boat. The shocking incident took place on Sunday afternoon on Sotillo Beach in Castell de Ferro, Granada.
Stunned sunbathers watched on in disbelief as a boat crammed full of young men approached the shore at around 2pm local time. The migrants then jumped into the water and swam towards the beach, before trying to make a run for it. However, a number of sunbathers attempted to stop the migrants from fleeing, wrestling some of them to the ground.
One clip shows a beachgoer trying to rugby tackle a young man running at full pelt towards him.
In further footage, a man in swimming trunks pins a migrant to the ground, who pleads to be released. Witnesses described the dramatic scenes that unfolded before their eyes as “surreal”.
One of those was Alberto Garcia – a local restaurant owner – who told the local newspaper Ideal: “We all stood there staring, not quite knowing what was happening.
“We thought it was a recreational boat, but when we saw that they started throwing objects into the water and people starting to get out, we realised it wasn’t normal.
“What surprised us most was that the boat was moving very slowly, as if they weren’t in a hurry or afraid. They went in where there were most people, as if nothing had happened, and stopped five metres from the shore.
“Then they jumped off one by one, and the four remaining on board, some of them hooded, calmly turned around and left.”
Witnesses said the migrants ran along the beach as soon as they reached the beach, while others tried to blend in with the crowd.
Officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil arrived soon after at the scene and took matters into their own hands.
They were aided by the Policia Local de Castell de Ferro, who said in a statement: “The lifeguards alerted us, and we managed to catch one on the street. Then we helped identify two more.
“The Civil Guard did the bulk of the work and managed to arrest nine.”